ShadowAngelBeta
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Right now? A Varia Suit practicing its knife juggling.
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Blade (UBW!Taylor Worm Quest)
- Thread starter siflux
- Start date
ryune
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@suflix I was wondering. Yeah, the Varia suit is fairly black boxed but could we meditate on it's make up and use parts of it for other things? Nothing incredibly complex mind you. Just as an example using the armor material and making ourself a shield or sword out of it? Could we make ourselves a more standard armor out of it? If we study the power assist closely enough could we reproduce it? Could we, with enough practice, "jail break" it so that we have access to more than just the stun weapon?
On another track, can we make changes to projected items persistent? For example if we added a laptop or smartphone would their data be frozen at the initial scan or would changes made like installing a new OS or writing a text file still be there after we dismiss the item and trace it again?
If we use SA on books can we study the information they contain by meditating on the collected knowledge or would we need to project the book and read it directly? Or would we be able to simply recall the information the same way we would with information about other objects?
On another track, can we make changes to projected items persistent? For example if we added a laptop or smartphone would their data be frozen at the initial scan or would changes made like installing a new OS or writing a text file still be there after we dismiss the item and trace it again?
If we use SA on books can we study the information they contain by meditating on the collected knowledge or would we need to project the book and read it directly? Or would we be able to simply recall the information the same way we would with information about other objects?
siflux
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ryune: First paragraph: Basically, yes to all, it'll just take time.
Persistence: You can and should do that. Even ordinary projections make real items. Without Structural Analysis, someone couldn't scan a computer in enough detail to retain state... but you can do that, so you can totally make a computer, install an OS, then remake it in the future with the OS.
SA on books: Scanning it will let you recreate the book exactly, but you'd still have to read it -- knowing how something was made exactly doesn't necessarily tell you what it does. You could probably read a scanned book in your head as if you had an eidetic memory for no prana, it would just take a bunch of concentration.
Persistence: You can and should do that. Even ordinary projections make real items. Without Structural Analysis, someone couldn't scan a computer in enough detail to retain state... but you can do that, so you can totally make a computer, install an OS, then remake it in the future with the OS.
SA on books: Scanning it will let you recreate the book exactly, but you'd still have to read it -- knowing how something was made exactly doesn't necessarily tell you what it does. You could probably read a scanned book in your head as if you had an eidetic memory for no prana, it would just take a bunch of concentration.
ryune
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Good to know.
Less than I was hoping for but about what I expected.
If that is the case then we really need to head out and get our hands on not only some electronics but also a slew of gear from guns to hunting equipment. Probably need to head down town and find a Best Buy equivalent and then later a hunting store for a couple cross bows, guns, knives and the like. We may also want to grab a weight set just to provide a way to train our circuits and our muscles. We probably also want to head over to the arcade to help build a relationship with U&L. Yeah, what they did was kind of a dick move but it was fun in the end right? And it's been a long while since Taylor could call anyone a friend.
[X] Go to the library and study for your GED
[X] Go to the arcade
[X] Get more gear for your power
[X] Get more gear for your power
BBJimmy
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[X] Go to the library and study for your GED
[X] Go to the library and study for your GED
[X] Go to the arcade
[X] Get more gear for your power
I figure the faster we get the GED out of the way, the better, and as ryune noted, U&L's little joke of a project ended up being a huge positive for Taylor, so she should see about making them into actual friends. More gear = more options = more likely to survive in the future.
[X] Go to the library and study for your GED
[X] Go to the arcade
[X] Get more gear for your power
I figure the faster we get the GED out of the way, the better, and as ryune noted, U&L's little joke of a project ended up being a huge positive for Taylor, so she should see about making them into actual friends. More gear = more options = more likely to survive in the future.
2.x (Interlude; Lung)
siflux
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Lung sat on a stack of crates, surveying the situation. His underlings scurried in and out of the warehouse, the tide lessening but still not stopped. Trustworthy lieutenants handed out weaponry and orders to more ordinary members.
Oni Lee walked in through the wide open warehouse door. Good, he was still minimizing the use of his powers. The cape did his best to struggle up to Lung's wooden aerial, stopping a level below him. "Trainyard secured," he relayed.
Lung nodded, needing to convey no more information than an acknowledgement. "The rest of the area?"
"Two groups of Nazi capes, Hookwolf leading one and Crusader with the other. We got set up first, entrenched in the rubble, but there's no expansion with them pushing in on two sides."
"Rest. If Hookwolf remains, we'll attack him at sunset. I'll destroy the opposition while the rank and file moves in."
Oni Lee slipped down the crate stack less than gracefully, only barely avoiding fracturing a leg on the way down.
Lung clambered down shortly thereafter with much more skill than Oni Lee. "Deploy two RPG-18s tonight. I will escort them to the Trainyard," he informed the quartermasters.
On his way out of the warehouse, Bakuda flagged him down from just outside. "Why did you make me give Uber and Leet a bomb?" She asked. "Not that I mind making high explosives, but I thought it was generally a bad idea to arm rival villains."
"Uber and Leet are no more the enemy than they are villains. They hold no territory, protect no people, demand no tribute. To stop them is to face powerful tinkertech, to ignore them has no downsides. The Nazis ignored the agent of Uber and Leet, but I rewarded her for her unwitting aid. And for Kenta."
"Kenta?" Bakuda pried, following Lung as he headed towards the Trainyard.
Lung nodded. "When I was young, I knew a boy named Kenta. He grew up without a father, but with a loving mother. His uncle worked at Nintendo, and got him every game that came out. He passed through public schooling well, but joined the Yakuza rather than going to college. And then an angry woman came through, beat up him and his squad, and left him face-down in a pile of drugs, where he simultaneously suffocated and ODed. In his short life, there were few who truly cared about Kenta. His mother and uncle, both killed by Leviathan. The games he enjoyed. And me."
The two said nothing for another block, until Bakuda reopened the conversation. "What do you mean 'her'? Uber wasn't in that suit?"
"I played many of Kenta's games. Uber and Leet based their latest operation on the Metroid titles, and Samus is a girl. They would not do otherwise. Also, her voice was clearly female on the stream."
"So, what, I just gave a bomb to a random civilian?"
"No. You gave a sample of a bomb to a random civilian wearing power armor that could make endless copies of that bomb. See if you can get the suit for a sequel series and keep it for yourself."
"Cool, I could be Master Chief."
"Who?"
"The guy in the suit from Halo."
"You know that, but you don't recognize the Metroid series?"
"Give me a break, boss. Everyone knows Nintendo games are for kids."
"Speaking of a break, how soon can I expect some results from you?"
"I've got a few miniaturized explosives done, the size of grenades but the boom of something ten times the size. Anything better will have to wait until next week. I've been messing around with tachyons, trying to make an explosive anti-tachyon pulse that should freeze time in the area for a while. There's also something in the works that explodes in a classical element, but I haven't gotten them big enough to be useful. I'm really looking forward to seeing someone step on a mine and get encased in ice. Oh! I just had an idea! I could do a triggered single-use microscale black hole generator! Pop it on someone and BAM, no more someone. I'm going to need a lot more equipment for that, though. Probably enough to build a small particle accelerator to start."
"It'll be done. I expect at least three elemental bombs by the end of next week. I'm thinking of Alabaster, unharmed as he usually is but surrounded by ice and unable to rejoin the fight. Perhaps Kaiser himself, stuck in a field of fire. How long do those last?"
"As far as I can tell, forever. They cause a permanent change, and then someone needs to melt the ice or extinguish the fire or wait for the lightning zone to run out of charge. With the amount of energy in there, that's weeks by itself or minutes at least for a cape."
"Good. You are dismissed," Lung announced, continuing onwards. Taking the cue, Bakuda broke off towards her lab. The leader of the ABB arrived at his destination near the former border of his gang's territory soon thereafter, verified that everything was still in order, and slept until shortly before sundown.
Lung rushed towards the shifting mass of blades that was Hookwolf, taking rapidly-healing wounds all over his body as he closed the distance. He reached his foe, grappling as his skin regrow in metal. "Lee!" He called. His lieutenant appeared next to him, then appeared again back where he came from, leaving a clone in combat. The Lee clone offered his boss a pair of grenades as he pulled the pins on all the other ones he was wearing.
Lung grabbed one of the grenades and stuffed it into Hookwolf's body. Ignoring the explosively propelled shrapnel and the unusually large blast, he pinned the creature, exposing it towards the Trainyard. "NNRAOWRG", he roared, his face already distending and robbing him of most of his ability to communicate. In sequence, two rockets impacted the Nazi's chains and hooks. A feral grin spread across his face as his target's movements slowed, exposing a glowing core. Lung reached in with one armored claw and crushed it, the core turning back into a heart as the dead cape shifted back to his human form.
Lung allowed himself one triumphant roar before launching himself, still on foot, towards the other battleground. With the death of their leader, the Nazis would likely drop this front, especially if the battle continued long enough for his wings to come in. The draconic being emitted a bass rumble of a laugh as he considered this antithesis of the axis alliance.
"FIRROUGHT RMEEE", he bellowed, charging towards Alabaster. He spat fire ahead of himself, engulfing his target in flames, but was suddenly shrouded in dark mist. Metal pierce his armored flesh as Night delayed him. He filled the area directly around himself with his flames, and was rewarded with a scream of pain as both Night and Fog's secondary forms were scorched. When his vision cleared, the Nazi capes had all retreated.
Lung scanned the area for other threats, finding that the Protectorate had arrived. For everyone but him, the fight over. But Lung still had a job to do. He stared at the cape approaching by motorcycle, who stared back.
Armsmaster blinked first, at least metaphorically. With the two both hiding their faces behind masks, it was impossible to tell literally. The hero made a U-turn, disappearing back into the night. Clearly, the tinker still had no way to deal with Lung so late into a fight. The rest of the ABB had gone to ground, leaving nothing to gain but injuries by attacking. Lung began to shrink, his metal coating reverting to skin as he considered the fight at an end. The Trainyard was theirs.
Oni Lee walked in through the wide open warehouse door. Good, he was still minimizing the use of his powers. The cape did his best to struggle up to Lung's wooden aerial, stopping a level below him. "Trainyard secured," he relayed.
Lung nodded, needing to convey no more information than an acknowledgement. "The rest of the area?"
"Two groups of Nazi capes, Hookwolf leading one and Crusader with the other. We got set up first, entrenched in the rubble, but there's no expansion with them pushing in on two sides."
"Rest. If Hookwolf remains, we'll attack him at sunset. I'll destroy the opposition while the rank and file moves in."
Oni Lee slipped down the crate stack less than gracefully, only barely avoiding fracturing a leg on the way down.
Lung clambered down shortly thereafter with much more skill than Oni Lee. "Deploy two RPG-18s tonight. I will escort them to the Trainyard," he informed the quartermasters.
On his way out of the warehouse, Bakuda flagged him down from just outside. "Why did you make me give Uber and Leet a bomb?" She asked. "Not that I mind making high explosives, but I thought it was generally a bad idea to arm rival villains."
"Uber and Leet are no more the enemy than they are villains. They hold no territory, protect no people, demand no tribute. To stop them is to face powerful tinkertech, to ignore them has no downsides. The Nazis ignored the agent of Uber and Leet, but I rewarded her for her unwitting aid. And for Kenta."
"Kenta?" Bakuda pried, following Lung as he headed towards the Trainyard.
Lung nodded. "When I was young, I knew a boy named Kenta. He grew up without a father, but with a loving mother. His uncle worked at Nintendo, and got him every game that came out. He passed through public schooling well, but joined the Yakuza rather than going to college. And then an angry woman came through, beat up him and his squad, and left him face-down in a pile of drugs, where he simultaneously suffocated and ODed. In his short life, there were few who truly cared about Kenta. His mother and uncle, both killed by Leviathan. The games he enjoyed. And me."
The two said nothing for another block, until Bakuda reopened the conversation. "What do you mean 'her'? Uber wasn't in that suit?"
"I played many of Kenta's games. Uber and Leet based their latest operation on the Metroid titles, and Samus is a girl. They would not do otherwise. Also, her voice was clearly female on the stream."
"So, what, I just gave a bomb to a random civilian?"
"No. You gave a sample of a bomb to a random civilian wearing power armor that could make endless copies of that bomb. See if you can get the suit for a sequel series and keep it for yourself."
"Cool, I could be Master Chief."
"Who?"
"The guy in the suit from Halo."
"You know that, but you don't recognize the Metroid series?"
"Give me a break, boss. Everyone knows Nintendo games are for kids."
"Speaking of a break, how soon can I expect some results from you?"
"I've got a few miniaturized explosives done, the size of grenades but the boom of something ten times the size. Anything better will have to wait until next week. I've been messing around with tachyons, trying to make an explosive anti-tachyon pulse that should freeze time in the area for a while. There's also something in the works that explodes in a classical element, but I haven't gotten them big enough to be useful. I'm really looking forward to seeing someone step on a mine and get encased in ice. Oh! I just had an idea! I could do a triggered single-use microscale black hole generator! Pop it on someone and BAM, no more someone. I'm going to need a lot more equipment for that, though. Probably enough to build a small particle accelerator to start."
"It'll be done. I expect at least three elemental bombs by the end of next week. I'm thinking of Alabaster, unharmed as he usually is but surrounded by ice and unable to rejoin the fight. Perhaps Kaiser himself, stuck in a field of fire. How long do those last?"
"As far as I can tell, forever. They cause a permanent change, and then someone needs to melt the ice or extinguish the fire or wait for the lightning zone to run out of charge. With the amount of energy in there, that's weeks by itself or minutes at least for a cape."
"Good. You are dismissed," Lung announced, continuing onwards. Taking the cue, Bakuda broke off towards her lab. The leader of the ABB arrived at his destination near the former border of his gang's territory soon thereafter, verified that everything was still in order, and slept until shortly before sundown.
Lung rushed towards the shifting mass of blades that was Hookwolf, taking rapidly-healing wounds all over his body as he closed the distance. He reached his foe, grappling as his skin regrow in metal. "Lee!" He called. His lieutenant appeared next to him, then appeared again back where he came from, leaving a clone in combat. The Lee clone offered his boss a pair of grenades as he pulled the pins on all the other ones he was wearing.
Lung grabbed one of the grenades and stuffed it into Hookwolf's body. Ignoring the explosively propelled shrapnel and the unusually large blast, he pinned the creature, exposing it towards the Trainyard. "NNRAOWRG", he roared, his face already distending and robbing him of most of his ability to communicate. In sequence, two rockets impacted the Nazi's chains and hooks. A feral grin spread across his face as his target's movements slowed, exposing a glowing core. Lung reached in with one armored claw and crushed it, the core turning back into a heart as the dead cape shifted back to his human form.
Lung allowed himself one triumphant roar before launching himself, still on foot, towards the other battleground. With the death of their leader, the Nazis would likely drop this front, especially if the battle continued long enough for his wings to come in. The draconic being emitted a bass rumble of a laugh as he considered this antithesis of the axis alliance.
"FIRROUGHT RMEEE", he bellowed, charging towards Alabaster. He spat fire ahead of himself, engulfing his target in flames, but was suddenly shrouded in dark mist. Metal pierce his armored flesh as Night delayed him. He filled the area directly around himself with his flames, and was rewarded with a scream of pain as both Night and Fog's secondary forms were scorched. When his vision cleared, the Nazi capes had all retreated.
Lung scanned the area for other threats, finding that the Protectorate had arrived. For everyone but him, the fight over. But Lung still had a job to do. He stared at the cape approaching by motorcycle, who stared back.
Armsmaster blinked first, at least metaphorically. With the two both hiding their faces behind masks, it was impossible to tell literally. The hero made a U-turn, disappearing back into the night. Clearly, the tinker still had no way to deal with Lung so late into a fight. The rest of the ABB had gone to ground, leaving nothing to gain but injuries by attacking. Lung began to shrink, his metal coating reverting to skin as he considered the fight at an end. The Trainyard was theirs.
siflux
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Lee's not un-athletic, he's just not good at climbing, the create stack was steep, and he has been asked to avoid teleporting outside combat for his own sake.
Sorry about any issues like that involving poor characterization. I'd prefer to avoid doing more than grammar edits to content that's already posted, but keep bringing this kind of stuff to my attention and I'll try not to make the same mistakes in the future.
Sorry about any issues like that involving poor characterization. I'd prefer to avoid doing more than grammar edits to content that's already posted, but keep bringing this kind of stuff to my attention and I'll try not to make the same mistakes in the future.
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cthulhu fartagn
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i see the joke, but i dont get it.
[X] Go to the library and study for your GED
[X] Go to the library and study for your GED
[X] Go to the library and study for your GED
[X] Get more gear for your power
siflux
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Just an oblique reference to the First Law of Fanfiction. Taylor has an amazing suit of powered armor. Correspondingly, a mix must be true of it having weaknesses that can potentially be exploited and the enemy being stronger to deal with that. Fortunately, Worm canon already has a plethora of nigh-insurmountable problems to challenge, where powered armor either won't help (social issues, lack of friends, politics), or simply isn't enough (Slaughterhouse Nine, Endbringers, Scion, Triumvirate, general shard fuckery). While the last chapter was something of a steamroll, it was a fully guided scenario where the point was for you to be successful, preferably excessively so. As an author, my job is now to start bringing in complex challenges that either Taylor really doesn't have enough power (without being clever) to handle or that require complex solutions. The collective intelligence of groups is surprisingly high.
cthulhu fartagn
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Lung is Asian. Nintendo is Asian. Therefore metroid is Asian.
Metroid is Asian, therefore Samus is Asian.
samus is Taylor, therefore Taylor is Asian.
lung is a dragon, every bodies Asian.
3.1
siflux
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Much as you want to get stuff done, you spend half the morning asleep and can barely get out of bed once you awaken. Dad comes in and takes your temperature, revealing a moderate fever which goes away after having chicken soup for dinner. Frustrating, but your power is pretty useless for dealing with mundane sickness.
You decide to spend the weekend morning productively continuing to study for your GED. Once you have that out of the way, you can see about getting a little truth out of Uber and Leet, see where you stand with each other, hopefully get paid like they initially promised. Assuming that all pans out, you want to grab a cellphone so you can call in anyone you take down while patrolling in the future. While you're at it, you intend to window shop for some extra gear, hopefully copy some functional body armor that doesn't take more than a third of your prana to manifest. Then it's home for dinner, sneaking out afterwards to try to track down a cape fight and copy the gear from the fighters. If you run into any criminals on the way you'll take them down, but you don't intend to get involved in the cape fight at all. Of course, protecting uninvolved people from getting caught in the crossfire is the highest priority. All in all, you've got a plan, and you can only hope it stays useful.
The math section of the GED remains easy. You keep at the practice problems anyways. One of the last things you want is to fail the test and be legally forced to return to Winslow and forced to deal with the Trio again. The library is noisier than usual, with a group of young children in the other room, but you do your best to tune them out and keep solving pages and pages of sample problems. (GED status: 2/30 study points).
While you're there, you scan all the physical materials you can find for the test so you can recreate and use them without needing to return to the library. Unfortunately, most of what you're using is digital, and you can't afford the tens of dollars it would take to print it all out now at 11 cents per page. Still, you have enough for a few study sessions outside the library, and you can always study more here. You just like having options.
You consume the contents of the sack lunch you packed this morning as you wander from the library over to the arcade. You're more than a little angry about how you were attacked repeatedly last night, but you think you could get over it. You're still mulling it over when you realize you're already there. A small TV is set up on a table against the wall, with a white game console and matching controller poking out from under it. Daniel is engrossed in Tetris again and doesn't immediately notice you enter. Unusually, there are a bunch of other people in the arcade. Some are check out the place in general or the wall that had a huge hole in it for a while yesterday, while others are using the machines. You look around for a minute, unsure what to do.
Fortunately, Daniel finishes his game quickly, getting a new high score. He spots you out of his peripheral vision and turns to greet you.
"Hey, did you see the Uber and Leet stream last night?" He asks, as if he hadn't been monitoring it the whole time.
Wait, there's a bunch of people around. He probably wants to maintain a disguise. You could always out him as revenge for everything. That's the kind of thing that can't be undone, though, so you decide not to do it quite yet and play along for now. "The whole thing," you admit honestly. "Why?"
"I figured you'd probably never played the game it's based on, so I brought in my Wii so you can play it."
Must not comment on homophones, you think. It's not like you've never heard of the biggest toy from the Christmas season five years ago. Daniel hands you the controller and you take it.
In total, you take about four hours to run through Super Metroid, putting you a little behind schedule for the day. It's worth it, though. You had a lot of fun playing the game. Afterwards, Uber packs up the TV and console, leaving the arcade much earlier than usual.
"So. Good game?" The supervillain in disguise asks.
"Yeah," you admit. "But I kind of wanted to talk about--"
"Oh, I have a bunch of other classics you should try sometime," he interrupts. "Tell you what, Ted and I are pretty much done with this arcade. How about I give you my phone number and you can come over some time and play something from my library."
Is this an olive branch? You're fairly certain he isn't going to use the opportunity to molest you, and even if he tries you can use your yet-unrevealed powers to escape. Or just Mace him. Which brings up a good idea -- you should probably scan some Mace. For that matter, you should probably buy some so you don't reveal your powers by making it, or in case you run out of prana. Either way, that brings you back to an issue.
"I don't have a cellphone, actually," you hint. "Or any spending money."
"What a coincidence," Daniel deadpans. "I have an entire paycheck that I'm supposed to pass along to someone." He swings his backpack off one shoulder, rummages around for a few seconds, then hands you a plain white envelope. You tear into it, revealing a personal check for three thousand dollars.
You stare at it, making sure it's real. Paper, ink, names -- the only way it could be fake is if the account it's drawing from is empty.
"This is… a lot more than I expected," you comment.
"We broke a hundred thousand views for the first time since we did Tetris," Uber explains proudly. "That's your cut of the ad revenue at twenty percent. You earned it." He pauses, giving you a chance to speak, but you don't seize it. "There's probably going to be that much again over the next few years from the long tail, but most of the views come from the first few days. If you'd like, it'd be easier to set up direct deposit for it." He breaks again, but you're still flabbergasted at holding more money than you've had in your entire life, combined. "Actually, I think you're part of what made the whole thing go so well. If you want in on another video, we'd be happy to find a role for you. Help with the planning and we'll see about giving you a bigger cut too."
"I…" you finally collect yourself. "It's not that I'm not interested, but there are some things we need to discuss privately first. Can we come back to this later?"
"Of course. Just needed to get the offer out there. Cellphone shopping first?"
You end up blowing a solid portion of your money on a top-end Android smartphone, at least partially as a result of Uber's recommendation and half-hour rant about open source software. You trade numbers with him, also getting Ted's in the process. You also set up a bank account and, like Uber recommended, fill out some direct deposit information for him. If nothing else, it'll be convenient not to need to track him down regularly for payments.
By the time you finally manage to ditch Uber, there's almost no time to browse arms and armor. You grab a can of Mace and rush home before Dad starts to worry. Dinner's good, but you're a little too lost in thought to talk much. Dad mentions that there's been an upswing in gang fighting since yesterday, centered around the Trainyard, which probably happened because the Merchants capes got taken down. You smile at that.
After dinner, you retreat to your room and take a nap while you wait for Dad to fall asleep. You set an alarm on your new phone, which wakes you at 11 so you can sneak out of the house.
You jog directly towards the Trainyard, since that's apparently where all the fighting is happening right now. Now that you've just taken a nap, you have the presence of mind to feel a little bad about that. If not for your actions two nights ago, the area would still be stable, a lot less full of gang violence.
You stop yourself mentally, though not physically. By removing the Merchants, you have made everyone in what was once their territory safer. Both the ABB and E88 treat people in their respective zones of control better than the Merchants did. There will be fewer people kidnapped, fewer kids exposed and addicted to drugs through no choice of their own. Your actions may not have been optimal, but they were an improvement over the previous state of affairs. You should perhaps think a little more thoroughly before you go about upsetting the balance of power again, but you should not regret getting Skidmark, Squealer, and Mush jailed.
You slow down as you first hear the ringing sound of metal clanging off of metal. There's no roaring, so it clearly isn't someone fighting Lung, but it's equally clearly a cape fight because of the lack of gunfire.
You opt to stay completely out of costume, trusting your instincts to summon a barrier if an attack gets too close to you. It won't do you any good if you get hit by a bullet -- at a mere three hundred meters per second, a bullet can travel three meters in the ten milliseconds it would very favorably take for you to react, double your length from head to toe, and that's just the subsonic ammo that you can hear coming. Not forming your power suit puts your life in some amount of danger, but there isn't any gunfire currently within earshot and it would completely give away the fact that you have powers. By passing yourself off as normal, you can grab a weapon or two and still feign ignorance if you get caught.
You inch along, peeking out from around the corner of a building to finally identify the fighters. About two blocks away from you, Armsmaster is dueling against the tag team of Fenja and Menja, the Empire's amazing 50-foot women. You're not sure which is which, but one wields a sword where the other carries a spear. Both also carry a shield, though the spear twin's defensive armament lies abandoned , still huge and leaning against a building. Despite their size and numbers, Armsmaster is still holding them off, though he seems unable to force them on the defensive.
You know what? Forget just watching him load unconscious people into a van. THIS is the coolest thing you've ever seen. A live cape fight, not even two football fields away from you! I mean, I guess what you did a few nights ago could count, but you weren't using your powers and were a little too busy fighting for your life to really watch what you were doing. Maybe you should check Uber and Leet's recording of the whole thing.
You focus on the giant twins first. Their weapons are of solid quality, reinforced by their power in a manner similar to what you can do, but also grown to enormous size in a way you can't reproduce. Not only does the growth enlarge the weapons, it also increases the amount of power the weapons can safely carry without breaking explosively under the strain.
New Trace: Kite Shield (Oversized) [Fenja/Menja]
New Trace: Glaive (Oversized) [Menja]
New Trace: Estoc (Oversized) [Fenja]
Your power fills you in with far more details than you'd ever particularly need to know about the exact name for the style of weapon, their historical role, blade shape, and more. The important thing to you is that you now have access to… actually, oversized weapons designed for somebody an order of magnitude larger than you aren't very useful. The shield's good, you can always use a premade slab of metal that's designed to catch and deflect blows, even if it's only going to be an instant wall. As for Armsmaster…
New Trace: Armsmaster's Power Armor, Mk.15L.Ver26.01 [Armsmaster]
New Trace: Armsmaster's Halberd Mk.16C.Ver02.01 [Armsmaster] {NP}: Halberd: A Library of Weapons: While already packed full of functions, there's a limit on how much stuff a given model of Halberd can physically hold. However, each new model of Halberd is imbued by its creator and through its use with the memory of the weapons and uses held by previous Halberds over the past fifteen years and counting. By spending Prana, these functions no longer present in this Halberd but found in any prior model may be made manifest.
Holy shit, another Noble Phantasm. I mean, you shouldn't be surprised, it's tinkertech and Armsmaster is awesome. But this means that, whether or not he knows it, he managed to make a weapon that can literally do more than it can actually do.
On second thought, that's kind of obvious -- according to every biography of Armsmaster, that's the whole point of the Halberd. All the other Tinkers have to choose what gear they want to field each day, where Armsmaster just throws it all in his polearm and pulls out whatever he needs.
As you watch, Armsmaster catches Fenja's or Menja's sword, whichever of the two it is, between the spear and axe blades of his device. Using the clash as a pivot, he slides inside the amazon's guard and slaps her shin with the pole of the Mk.16 Halberd. The twin convulses from electric shock, allowing the hero a solid slap on the other leg, compounding the issue and knocking her over. Her twin rushes up to catch her, using the shield to block Armsmaster's further assault while the one recovers and the both retreat from the fight.
Armsmaster attempts to pursue, but a wall of spikes from nowhere gives the twins time to escape. Kaiser, who was clearly at least present enough to make that, doesn't appear either, ending the battle.
Armsmaster looks looks slowly around, eventually stopping to stare directly at you. You all but slap your forehead at the realization of your own idiocy. Of course he has night vision and would be able to spot you. Probably thermal vision and a few other modes too, it's what you'd do. What you can and should do in the future, since you now have access to powered armor that can probably do that.
Armsmaster walks directly towards your position, making a quick gesture with his left hand to indicate to you that yes, it's definitely you that he's approaching, not some pile of rubble or something. He's still over a block away, and he probably has you flagged as a civilian caught in this mess rather than as a potential hostile. You can probably slip away before he gets within easy speaking range of you, or you can stay.
Note: today was Friday/Saturday, March 25/26, 2011
What do?
[ ] You're not ready to talk to a real hero yet. You haven't done anything to really earn the name for yourself, and you don't want to make a bad first impression by fangirling.
[ ] This is freaking ARMSMASTER here! You wore underpants with his crest on it when you were young! Stay and fangirl!
[ ] Volunteer the fact that you have powers and ask what you should do
[ ] Hide the fact that you have powers, but still try to get advice
[ ] Other (Write-In)
You decide to spend the weekend morning productively continuing to study for your GED. Once you have that out of the way, you can see about getting a little truth out of Uber and Leet, see where you stand with each other, hopefully get paid like they initially promised. Assuming that all pans out, you want to grab a cellphone so you can call in anyone you take down while patrolling in the future. While you're at it, you intend to window shop for some extra gear, hopefully copy some functional body armor that doesn't take more than a third of your prana to manifest. Then it's home for dinner, sneaking out afterwards to try to track down a cape fight and copy the gear from the fighters. If you run into any criminals on the way you'll take them down, but you don't intend to get involved in the cape fight at all. Of course, protecting uninvolved people from getting caught in the crossfire is the highest priority. All in all, you've got a plan, and you can only hope it stays useful.
The math section of the GED remains easy. You keep at the practice problems anyways. One of the last things you want is to fail the test and be legally forced to return to Winslow and forced to deal with the Trio again. The library is noisier than usual, with a group of young children in the other room, but you do your best to tune them out and keep solving pages and pages of sample problems. (GED status: 2/30 study points).
While you're there, you scan all the physical materials you can find for the test so you can recreate and use them without needing to return to the library. Unfortunately, most of what you're using is digital, and you can't afford the tens of dollars it would take to print it all out now at 11 cents per page. Still, you have enough for a few study sessions outside the library, and you can always study more here. You just like having options.
You consume the contents of the sack lunch you packed this morning as you wander from the library over to the arcade. You're more than a little angry about how you were attacked repeatedly last night, but you think you could get over it. You're still mulling it over when you realize you're already there. A small TV is set up on a table against the wall, with a white game console and matching controller poking out from under it. Daniel is engrossed in Tetris again and doesn't immediately notice you enter. Unusually, there are a bunch of other people in the arcade. Some are check out the place in general or the wall that had a huge hole in it for a while yesterday, while others are using the machines. You look around for a minute, unsure what to do.
Fortunately, Daniel finishes his game quickly, getting a new high score. He spots you out of his peripheral vision and turns to greet you.
"Hey, did you see the Uber and Leet stream last night?" He asks, as if he hadn't been monitoring it the whole time.
Wait, there's a bunch of people around. He probably wants to maintain a disguise. You could always out him as revenge for everything. That's the kind of thing that can't be undone, though, so you decide not to do it quite yet and play along for now. "The whole thing," you admit honestly. "Why?"
"I figured you'd probably never played the game it's based on, so I brought in my Wii so you can play it."
Must not comment on homophones, you think. It's not like you've never heard of the biggest toy from the Christmas season five years ago. Daniel hands you the controller and you take it.
In total, you take about four hours to run through Super Metroid, putting you a little behind schedule for the day. It's worth it, though. You had a lot of fun playing the game. Afterwards, Uber packs up the TV and console, leaving the arcade much earlier than usual.
"So. Good game?" The supervillain in disguise asks.
"Yeah," you admit. "But I kind of wanted to talk about--"
"Oh, I have a bunch of other classics you should try sometime," he interrupts. "Tell you what, Ted and I are pretty much done with this arcade. How about I give you my phone number and you can come over some time and play something from my library."
Is this an olive branch? You're fairly certain he isn't going to use the opportunity to molest you, and even if he tries you can use your yet-unrevealed powers to escape. Or just Mace him. Which brings up a good idea -- you should probably scan some Mace. For that matter, you should probably buy some so you don't reveal your powers by making it, or in case you run out of prana. Either way, that brings you back to an issue.
"I don't have a cellphone, actually," you hint. "Or any spending money."
"What a coincidence," Daniel deadpans. "I have an entire paycheck that I'm supposed to pass along to someone." He swings his backpack off one shoulder, rummages around for a few seconds, then hands you a plain white envelope. You tear into it, revealing a personal check for three thousand dollars.
You stare at it, making sure it's real. Paper, ink, names -- the only way it could be fake is if the account it's drawing from is empty.
"This is… a lot more than I expected," you comment.
"We broke a hundred thousand views for the first time since we did Tetris," Uber explains proudly. "That's your cut of the ad revenue at twenty percent. You earned it." He pauses, giving you a chance to speak, but you don't seize it. "There's probably going to be that much again over the next few years from the long tail, but most of the views come from the first few days. If you'd like, it'd be easier to set up direct deposit for it." He breaks again, but you're still flabbergasted at holding more money than you've had in your entire life, combined. "Actually, I think you're part of what made the whole thing go so well. If you want in on another video, we'd be happy to find a role for you. Help with the planning and we'll see about giving you a bigger cut too."
"I…" you finally collect yourself. "It's not that I'm not interested, but there are some things we need to discuss privately first. Can we come back to this later?"
"Of course. Just needed to get the offer out there. Cellphone shopping first?"
You end up blowing a solid portion of your money on a top-end Android smartphone, at least partially as a result of Uber's recommendation and half-hour rant about open source software. You trade numbers with him, also getting Ted's in the process. You also set up a bank account and, like Uber recommended, fill out some direct deposit information for him. If nothing else, it'll be convenient not to need to track him down regularly for payments.
By the time you finally manage to ditch Uber, there's almost no time to browse arms and armor. You grab a can of Mace and rush home before Dad starts to worry. Dinner's good, but you're a little too lost in thought to talk much. Dad mentions that there's been an upswing in gang fighting since yesterday, centered around the Trainyard, which probably happened because the Merchants capes got taken down. You smile at that.
After dinner, you retreat to your room and take a nap while you wait for Dad to fall asleep. You set an alarm on your new phone, which wakes you at 11 so you can sneak out of the house.
You jog directly towards the Trainyard, since that's apparently where all the fighting is happening right now. Now that you've just taken a nap, you have the presence of mind to feel a little bad about that. If not for your actions two nights ago, the area would still be stable, a lot less full of gang violence.
You stop yourself mentally, though not physically. By removing the Merchants, you have made everyone in what was once their territory safer. Both the ABB and E88 treat people in their respective zones of control better than the Merchants did. There will be fewer people kidnapped, fewer kids exposed and addicted to drugs through no choice of their own. Your actions may not have been optimal, but they were an improvement over the previous state of affairs. You should perhaps think a little more thoroughly before you go about upsetting the balance of power again, but you should not regret getting Skidmark, Squealer, and Mush jailed.
You slow down as you first hear the ringing sound of metal clanging off of metal. There's no roaring, so it clearly isn't someone fighting Lung, but it's equally clearly a cape fight because of the lack of gunfire.
You opt to stay completely out of costume, trusting your instincts to summon a barrier if an attack gets too close to you. It won't do you any good if you get hit by a bullet -- at a mere three hundred meters per second, a bullet can travel three meters in the ten milliseconds it would very favorably take for you to react, double your length from head to toe, and that's just the subsonic ammo that you can hear coming. Not forming your power suit puts your life in some amount of danger, but there isn't any gunfire currently within earshot and it would completely give away the fact that you have powers. By passing yourself off as normal, you can grab a weapon or two and still feign ignorance if you get caught.
You inch along, peeking out from around the corner of a building to finally identify the fighters. About two blocks away from you, Armsmaster is dueling against the tag team of Fenja and Menja, the Empire's amazing 50-foot women. You're not sure which is which, but one wields a sword where the other carries a spear. Both also carry a shield, though the spear twin's defensive armament lies abandoned , still huge and leaning against a building. Despite their size and numbers, Armsmaster is still holding them off, though he seems unable to force them on the defensive.
You know what? Forget just watching him load unconscious people into a van. THIS is the coolest thing you've ever seen. A live cape fight, not even two football fields away from you! I mean, I guess what you did a few nights ago could count, but you weren't using your powers and were a little too busy fighting for your life to really watch what you were doing. Maybe you should check Uber and Leet's recording of the whole thing.
You focus on the giant twins first. Their weapons are of solid quality, reinforced by their power in a manner similar to what you can do, but also grown to enormous size in a way you can't reproduce. Not only does the growth enlarge the weapons, it also increases the amount of power the weapons can safely carry without breaking explosively under the strain.
New Trace: Kite Shield (Oversized) [Fenja/Menja]
New Trace: Glaive (Oversized) [Menja]
New Trace: Estoc (Oversized) [Fenja]
Your power fills you in with far more details than you'd ever particularly need to know about the exact name for the style of weapon, their historical role, blade shape, and more. The important thing to you is that you now have access to… actually, oversized weapons designed for somebody an order of magnitude larger than you aren't very useful. The shield's good, you can always use a premade slab of metal that's designed to catch and deflect blows, even if it's only going to be an instant wall. As for Armsmaster…
New Trace: Armsmaster's Power Armor, Mk.15L.Ver26.01 [Armsmaster]
New Trace: Armsmaster's Halberd Mk.16C.Ver02.01 [Armsmaster] {NP}: Halberd: A Library of Weapons: While already packed full of functions, there's a limit on how much stuff a given model of Halberd can physically hold. However, each new model of Halberd is imbued by its creator and through its use with the memory of the weapons and uses held by previous Halberds over the past fifteen years and counting. By spending Prana, these functions no longer present in this Halberd but found in any prior model may be made manifest.
Holy shit, another Noble Phantasm. I mean, you shouldn't be surprised, it's tinkertech and Armsmaster is awesome. But this means that, whether or not he knows it, he managed to make a weapon that can literally do more than it can actually do.
On second thought, that's kind of obvious -- according to every biography of Armsmaster, that's the whole point of the Halberd. All the other Tinkers have to choose what gear they want to field each day, where Armsmaster just throws it all in his polearm and pulls out whatever he needs.
As you watch, Armsmaster catches Fenja's or Menja's sword, whichever of the two it is, between the spear and axe blades of his device. Using the clash as a pivot, he slides inside the amazon's guard and slaps her shin with the pole of the Mk.16 Halberd. The twin convulses from electric shock, allowing the hero a solid slap on the other leg, compounding the issue and knocking her over. Her twin rushes up to catch her, using the shield to block Armsmaster's further assault while the one recovers and the both retreat from the fight.
Armsmaster attempts to pursue, but a wall of spikes from nowhere gives the twins time to escape. Kaiser, who was clearly at least present enough to make that, doesn't appear either, ending the battle.
Armsmaster looks looks slowly around, eventually stopping to stare directly at you. You all but slap your forehead at the realization of your own idiocy. Of course he has night vision and would be able to spot you. Probably thermal vision and a few other modes too, it's what you'd do. What you can and should do in the future, since you now have access to powered armor that can probably do that.
Armsmaster walks directly towards your position, making a quick gesture with his left hand to indicate to you that yes, it's definitely you that he's approaching, not some pile of rubble or something. He's still over a block away, and he probably has you flagged as a civilian caught in this mess rather than as a potential hostile. You can probably slip away before he gets within easy speaking range of you, or you can stay.
Note: today was Friday/Saturday, March 25/26, 2011
What do?
[ ] You're not ready to talk to a real hero yet. You haven't done anything to really earn the name for yourself, and you don't want to make a bad first impression by fangirling.
[ ] This is freaking ARMSMASTER here! You wore underpants with his crest on it when you were young! Stay and fangirl!
[ ] Volunteer the fact that you have powers and ask what you should do
[ ] Hide the fact that you have powers, but still try to get advice
[ ] Other (Write-In)
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BBJimmy
Making the rounds.
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[X] You're not ready to talk to a real hero yet. You haven't done anything to really earn the name for yourself, and you don't want to make a bad first impression by fangirling.
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TheDivineDemon
Know what you're doing yet?
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[X] This is freaking ARMSMASTER here! You wore underpants with his crest on it when you were young! Stay and fangirl!
Frakir's brother
Experienced.
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Go for independent, the only fics I've seen with Uber and Leet are oneshots or dead.
Minion #Q
Well worn.
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[X] This is freaking ARMSMASTER here! You wore underpants with his crest on it when you were young! Stay and fangirl!
to be honest the main reason i'm doing this is given the normal fanon in 90% of fic's I figure he'll insult us with the true fact that we were dumb enough to stay and watch and we won't have a good impression of the hero. also running's suspicious
to be honest the main reason i'm doing this is given the normal fanon in 90% of fic's I figure he'll insult us with the true fact that we were dumb enough to stay and watch and we won't have a good impression of the hero. also running's suspicious
unwashed heathen
Not too sore, are you?
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[X] You're not ready to talk to a real hero yet. You haven't done anything to really earn the name for yourself, and you don't want to make a bad first impression by fangirling.
I actually feel like choosing the fangirling option is the most likely way for her to end up not joining the Wards. I can totally see Armsmaster being a dick and turning her off from the idea.
I hope she does end up teaming with Uber and Leet though. There aren't enough fics that go in that direction, and her power has way too much synergy with Leet's for her not to work with him.
EDIT: Thanks Zum.
I actually feel like choosing the fangirling option is the most likely way for her to end up not joining the Wards. I can totally see Armsmaster being a dick and turning her off from the idea.
I hope she does end up teaming with Uber and Leet though. There aren't enough fics that go in that direction, and her power has way too much synergy with Leet's for her not to work with him.
EDIT: Thanks Zum.
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Zum
Philosopher to The End
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unwashed heathen: your x is lowercase in the brackets, you might want to change that, I've heard some tally-bots have trouble registering votes that are like that....
[X] Hide the fact that you have powers, but still try to get advice
I'm not sure if we would be able to get good advice from Armsmaster without telling him about our powers, but we're also not in costume at the moment, and it could be risky to out ourselves so close to a cape fight.....
[X] Hide the fact that you have powers, but still try to get advice
I'm not sure if we would be able to get good advice from Armsmaster without telling him about our powers, but we're also not in costume at the moment, and it could be risky to out ourselves so close to a cape fight.....
massdefect76
Getting sticky.
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[X] This is freaking ARMSMASTER here! You wore underpants with his crest on it when you were young! Stay and fangirl!
Silver W. King
King of Adventures
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Okay first.
[X] You're not ready to talk to a real hero yet. You haven't done anything to really earn the name for yourself, and you don't want to make a bad first impression by fangirling.
Second.
Third.
[X] You're not ready to talk to a real hero yet. You haven't done anything to really earn the name for yourself, and you don't want to make a bad first impression by fangirling.
Second.
This is Awesome.
Third.
For some reason (probably due to me wanting to sleep) I kept reading this line over and over because my brain kept processing it as "The more Taylor traces new items, the more her prana capacity grows. Thus when she traces the everything, she can throw Unlimited [OBJECT] Works".
Jack of Olives
Knows just enough to be dangerous.
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[X] You're not ready to talk to a real hero yet. You haven't done anything to really earn the name for yourself, and you don't want to make a bad first impression by fangirling.
Jefepato
Know what you're doing yet?
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[X] Hide the fact that you have powers, but still try to get advice
I don't think he would like the fangirling thing (he's a glory hound but the kind who wants career advancement, not gleeful teenage adoration), but I am sure he's dealt with it before and learned some kind of roughly appropriate response. He did some pretty bad things in canon, but if he pissed off everyone who gushed when they met him, he wouldn't be in charge in Brockton Bay. The PRT and Protectorate do take PR seriously.
Eh. Recall that when he started acting like a dick in canon, he called Taylor stupid because she really was being stupid. I'm pretty sure every Worm reader was facepalming at her "brilliant" plan at that point.
I don't think he would like the fangirling thing (he's a glory hound but the kind who wants career advancement, not gleeful teenage adoration), but I am sure he's dealt with it before and learned some kind of roughly appropriate response. He did some pretty bad things in canon, but if he pissed off everyone who gushed when they met him, he wouldn't be in charge in Brockton Bay. The PRT and Protectorate do take PR seriously.
unwashed heathen
Not too sore, are you?
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Haha yeah he really wasn't that bad in canon, it's just for some reason most of the FF I've read turn him into Douchemaster. I just tend to assume he's going to be a scumbag since the community has a massive hate-on for him. You're right though, this is a new and unknown Armsmaster so I should give him a chance.